Paula Deen, who’s show Food Network announced it was dropping effective when it’s contract ran out next month in the wake of revelations that she used the N-word more than once with people who worked for her and over the years, appeared on The TODAY Show with Matt Lauer Wednesday morning.
This blogger felt sorry for the crying Ms. Deen. My statements in the video below do stand: Paula Deen should know that advertisers will not pay for any show where the person openly expresses a dislike for someone based on skin color, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. But, after a massive dose of public shaming, the 66 year old culinary business woman gets it.
Now, I think she’s been punished enough. Seeing someone, anyone, cry is not something I enjoy. But I particularly don’t like it when it’s someone I view as vulnerable. It was enough for me to see Ms. Deen at her most vulnerable, laid bear before national television, to know that she truly is sorry.
We all make mistakes, and for those to continue to cast stone toward her is shameful. After a while, I have to believe those who repeatedly do it have something wrong themselves.
Paula said something that got to me: “I is what I is. I ain’t changin.” Say, Ms. Deen has been totally honest. She could have got on the stand in court and lied, but she didn’t. But the bottom line is, I have made the choice to believe she’s now a better person than she was before this emerged, and if it took this level of exposure to get her to “get the message,” so be it.
No, there are attitudes she has that make me cringe a bit. For example, I don’t accept the idea that your “black cred” comes because you hired or helped a black person – it just means you think of someone black as inferior, and thus aren’t making an investment in a good business or effort, but just trying to gain race-points. That’s racist.
But I do understand how Ms. Deen could come to be that way.
I know people, white and male, who’s used the N-word toward me but I knew they didn’t mean harm. That’s a long story, but it’s true. They’re still my friends today. I don’t use the term, but I also know how America has evolved with it, and in order to get along and grow, you have to be empathic enough to see beyond it.
God bless Paula Deen.
Stay tuned.